The One That Got Away
by Deynaville2017
Summary: Daniel Cadence, the man who killed Lindsay's childhood friends, is in New York and looking to take revenge on the one survivor from that awful day so many years back in Montana. Oneshot. Prompted to me by Snowgirl01.


A/N This was prompted to me by Snowgirl01, I like how it came out overall, and I hope it lives up to what she wanted/expected. :)

The One That Got Away

"It's been awhile since we've been able to do this." Lindsay ran her fingers through Danny's hair, still damp from his shower earlier in the night.

"Too long." He agreed, arching his head to kiss the top of her head.

"Well," Lindsay snuggled in closer to him, biting her lip as she plucked his glasses off his face and set them on the night stand. "Lucy is sleeping, we both have tomorrow off work, the housework is done, and it's only ten at night." Her fingers traced mindless patterns down Danny's chest and stomach, "So what do you say we… uh…"

Danny grinned, watching her eyes linger down his body. "I think that would be a great idea, baby." His hand crept below her chin and tilted her head up gently, his lips meeting hers in a long overdue and tender kiss. He slipped his hand beneath the strap of Lindsay's slinky nightie, feeling the smoothness of her upper arm, and steadied her beneath him.

Moments later, disrupting their much needed alone time, a harsh knock echoed through their little apartment. Lindsay groaned, rolling Danny off of her and starting to slip out of bed. "No, honey, stay here. I'll get the door." Danny pled,

"Whoever would come to someone's house this late at night is crazy; they better have a good explanation for this." Lindsay grumbled, falling back on the bed and pushing her head into the pillow, and watched Danny exit the room. Once he'd left, Lindsay sat back up. She didn't know why, but she had a strange feeling in her stomach. Was it nervousness? Anxiety? Had she ate something bad? No, no, and no. This was a deep feeling welling up from within her gut. Something had to be seriously wrong. Nobody goes to someone's house that late at night just for a social call? Did people even make unannounced social calls much anymore? She wasn't sure, but no one they associated with would. She searched her brain, trying to find a logical conclusion to this random and mysterious visitor, when out of nowhere she heard Danny scream in the voice he used when he was threatening to shoot a perpetrator,

"PUT MY DAUGHTER DOWN, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH! WHO ARE YOU?!" The command was followed by a loud crash and a cry from Lucy, as well as multiple yells and grunts from Danny and another man. She wasn't sure what was going on, but Lindsay had to get in that room. Lucy was in there; Danny was in there- her family was in danger. Without even taking a second to comprehend the situation, Lindsay sprang up from bed and grabbed her baby blue robe and grabbed her gun out of the nightstand drawer. She didn't want to use it, but if it came down to it, she would.

When she burst into the living room, keeping her gun concealed, Lindsay immediacy scooped up Lucy from the floor. She didn't want to put Lucy at risk by chancing that this intruder would see where she had hid her. Yet at the same time, things could get messy in here, and Lindsay wanted to make sure Lucy was hidden from the gunfire and gore that was possible. She watched a couple seconds, and she was sure that neither of the men had seen her. Carefully, Lindsay crept back into the bedroom and opened the door to the closet. "Lucy, stay here and be quiet, Mommy is going to go get Daddy and we'll all come back in here and watch _The Lion King_. Does that sound good?" She kissed her daughter on the forehead,

"Simba!" Lucy smiled, clapping lightly.

"Yes, yes that's right." Lindsay agreed, and gently shushed the toddler, "but you have to promise Mommy that you're going to be very quiet until I come and get you, okay?" Lucy nodded,

"I promise, Mommy, I promise."

"Good girl." She couldn't resist the urge to kiss her daughter again, then stand and close the closet door. She rushed back to the living room, and fired a warning shot. The men stopped rolling around. Danny was able to get back on his feet while the masked stranger stared-frozen- at Lindsay. "What do you want?" Lindsay spat, "We'll give you anything you want, as long as you leave us and our child alone." Holding the gun in front of her, speaking sternly, and being in the face of danger were nothing new for Lindsay. What was new was the fact that _she _was responsible for protecting _her family _in the moment. She could hear Danny in the bedroom, finding his gun. "My husband and I are both in the police force at the NYPD, and you are an intruder in our home, neither of us will hesitate to shoot." Her heart was nearly beating out of her chest and she felt like she was on the verge of crying from fear-her mind couldn't get away from little Lucy locked in the bedroom closet- she'd done this type of procedure a hundred times. What was different now? Her family, that's what. "This is your warning; now tell me, what is it you want?"

"I want to speak to a Miss Lindsay Monroe." The voice was gruff, vengeful and cold.

"I'm Lindsay… I'm married now, but Monroe was my maiden name." She forced herself to swallow over a lump in her throat. If she had been afraid before, it was safe to say she was now absolutely terrified. "What do you want from me?"

"The one that got away." The man stood up, a low maniacal chuckle echoing from him.

"Who are you?" Lindsay asked again, her grip tightening around the gun.

"I didn't think you'd forget me so quickly. It hasn't really been all that long, you remembered me when you waltzed in to some courtroom and accused me of murder." The man tore off the ski mask, grinning wide. "Yet, here I am." His gestured to himself, his presence cocky and arrogant.

"Daniel Cadence." Lindsay whispered. She was almost certain her heart paused for a moment before picking up a rapid and irregular pattern. "What… How did you get out of prison? How are you in New York? Why are you here in the first place?" It took everything in Lindsay's power not to shoot him on the spot. Lindsay wasn't even sure how to function at this point. This was the monster that had killed her girlhood friends, stolen a huge part of her innocence, and changed her life in a horrific way. "Why are you here? What do you want from me?" Lindsay had broken by this point, tears starting to fall. It was a tremendous comfort; despite the horror of the moment, when Danny came back and stood near her-he was trying as best he could to stand in front of her but Lindsay wouldn't allow it.

"Those are all minor things, honey. Let's just say, you thought you'd ruined my life and so now I'm here to ruin your life."

"Haven't you already done that enough?" Was her voice quivering with uneasiness? Was it strong? She hoped it had been strong, but she wasn't sure.

"You put me in prison for life. How did I ruin _your _life?" Cadence snarled,

"You took the lives of a group of teenagers and a cashier! What did you get from it, thirty dollars… Maybe?" She raised her eyebrows and gritted her teeth. "You took my youth, the scene I saw was something out of a horror film. No little girl-no person- should _ever _have to see what I saw that day! My youth was gone the second I stepped out of that bathroom, do you understand that? Do you know the nightmares I had for months-years even- afterwards? Maybe you don't think anything of walking in and killing multiple people, but I do! All that you did that day has stayed with me-and will continue to stay with me- all my life. Do you understand how traumatic of an event that is for anyone-especially a kid?" Danny was listening to Lindsay, he just wanted to shoot this guy on the spot, he hadn't realized just how much Lindsay had kept inside her. Of course they'd spoken deeper of the event since Lindsay had testified against Cadence, but she had never become so vulnerable talking about it.

"Yeah." Daniel cocked his head, "It was such a bad experience that you decided to become a cop and expose yourself to murder and crime all the time, I couldn't have scarred you too bad."

"I'm going to shoot," Danny warned, but both Daniel and Lindsay ignored him.

"I became a _forensic scientist _so that I could catch people like you and get them off the streets." A forced bravery overtook her body, "I got into this profession so that I could have the satisfaction of knowing that people like _you _are in jails and prisons because of me. I do what I do so that no other fifteen year old has to walk out of a restroom and see their friends' bodies slumped over the booths and spread out on the floor. I do this so that no other kid has to see their friends' blood splattered all over the tile and the walls of a restaurant. So that no parents have to come ID their fifteen year old's body because some idiotic and inhumane monster with a gun had nothing to do that day. Because of me, no child will have to be told that their parent isn't coming home because they were shot at work. You know, I'm very proud with of my career, I guess I can thank you for showing me that much." It amazed her how confident she sounded.

"I didn't just wake up and decide to murder a bunch of kids." He shook his head, "No, I went in there to steal the money so that I could pay a doctor's bill for my girl."

"That required shooting people? There were less than eight people in the diner that day, don't even get me started on the amount of shots fired. Daniel, I feel sorry for you. No matter how much time passes, you don't feel any remorse. It's sad, but that exactly why you're going to spend the rest of your life locked up. I don't care how you got out of prison, I don't care that you got from Montana to New York to hunt me down, and I don't care what your reason is for being in my home, all I care-"

"I'm here to kill you! You're the one that got away, the one I should've killed such a long time ago." He grunted, "Figures, the only one that lives is stupid enough to try to lock me away."

"You're not going to kill me, you would've done it already, and I'm not stupid. The only stupid one in this room is you, and yes I'm going to get you put in-"

Bang. A single shot echoed in the apartment. Danny watched, stricken with fear and anxiety, as Lindsay fell to the ground. "Lindsay!" He dropped to the ground beside her.

Running his hand through her hair, Danny hardly noticed Daniel Cadence's wicked laugh. "Baby, it's alright," His hand was becoming saturated in blood from Lindsay's shoulder. He knew a shoulder wound wasn't excessively serious, but no matter where it was, a hole in the body isn't good. Lindsay batted open an eye for second, as if to say, 'get him.'

"Now that she's out of the picture, I may as well do away with you and your precious child."

"You are not going _anywhere _near my daughter, you bastard!" Danny got back to his feet, and gripped the gun, "Put your hands up and drop your weapon. Don't move, or I'm going to shoot." Danny warned again. Daniel whipped his head and rolled his eyes, stepping towards Danny in an effort to cause intimidation. Seconds later, a shot from Danny's gun rang out and Cadence was on the ground.

At that same time, the door to the apartment swung open and Mac and Jo entered. Mac pulled out a pair of handcuffs and cuffed Cadence's hands while Danny kept hold of him. Jo went over to Lindsay and called for an ambulance so that Lindsay could receive medical attention for the wound in her shoulder. "I'm taking him down to the precinct; there I'll get on the phone with law enforcement in Montana." Mac said, yanking Cadence toward the door,

"Alright." Jo acknowledged, "Flack is downstairs doing something, take him with you, keep us updated." With a nod Mac walked out, and Jo steadied Lindsay as she pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Thanks for calling us, Danny."'

"This wasn't a situation we could've gotten out of without you guys." Danny said, then turned his attention towards Lindsay, "I love you, sweetheart, and I want to make sure you're okay, but where is Lucy?"

After about five minutes, the ambulance came and Lindsay was being taken to the hospital to get the bullet removed from her shoulder. Danny rode with her in the ambulance, leaving Jo to babysit Lucy. It would only be for a few hours, but the fast paced ambulance ride would be no place for a toddler.

Within the night, Danny and Lindsay came back home. The bullet, as they had all expected, had missed any major veins in Lindsay's body. The procedure to remove the bullet had been simple and outpatient. The doctor had ordered that she take a couple days off from work to recover, and to make sure that she took it easy in that time. Still, there was nothing Lindsay wanted more than to hold Lucy as soon as she got home. Danny had tried to protest, however Jo understood that maternal instinct and insisted that as long as Lindsay was seated and Lucy was in her lap she'd be fine.

"Have you heard anything from Mac yet?" Lindsay asked, steadying Lucy on her legs, by this time Jo was well aware of who the intruder had been and his past with Lindsay.

"He called about twenty minutes ago." Jo answered, relaxing on the couch beside Danny, her eyes scanning the room. It was amazing just how quickly forensic cleanup had cleaned the place.

"Anything else?" Lindsay prodded.

"Daniel Cadence is being kept in one of our holding cells until someone from Montana gets out here. After that, he's going back to Montana and they say that he's going to be taken to a maximum security prison for the rest of his life."

"That's good." Lindsay nodded, one hand playing with her daughter's hair and the other reaching out to hold Danny's from across table. "That man doesn't deserve to see the light of day again. He deserves to be kept in a cage all his life."

"Well, Linds,"

"What?"

"They're… Daniel Cadence is going to be executed in a few months." Jo was careful with how she spoke, unsure of how Lindsay would take this news.

"Oh…" Lindsay wasn't quite sure what to say,

"Babe," Danny got up stood behind the rocking chair she was in, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." Lindsay nodded, a stone look of determination settling itself on her face, she looked up at Danny. "I'm going to be taking a little vacation back home in a few months."


End file.
